Research Project on Women's Reproductive Health in Quito's Mena del Hierro Neighborhood - Ecuador

The research focussed on women and women's health issues. It included a survey to identify the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of this population using in-depth interviews and a participatory research process.

Women, Health.

Mena del Hierro, in Quito, Ecuador, is a neighborhood that mixes urban and rural populations in a context of poverty and marginalisation. It has a population of 6,790, of which 27.29% (1,853) are women of childbearing age.

Women surveyed identified two types of health activities: what they call self-care activities of formal health, and self-care activities of day-to-day health. Formal health is associated with visits to doctors, clinics, and health facilities. However, day-to-day health activities, those undertaken by women on a daily basis through interpersonal communication or other forms of social relations, seem to play a greater role in women´s lives. This may reflect the fact that women report communication problems with health professionals. In contrast, communication with peers and people in a variety of social contexts faciliates the discussion of health issues.

Participants reported both that mass media vehicles and messages are insensitive to women's realities and that existing health communication programmes are inaccesible to women. Participants, motivated by the belief that there is a tendency by the media to homogenise health information for women, called for greater recognition of diversity across cultural groups. Women deemed the health messages that are available to them impractical, arguing that they need messages that will improve their lives on a daily basis.